I ♥ BELGIUM

I have had an extremely hectic period at work, so there was unfortunately never time to do any posts leading up to my DJ set in Belgium last week. I worked so much, in fact, that I barely even had time to pack my bag. When I went to bed the day before I flew to Belgium I had been awake over 36 hours, working non stop for 33 of those. This meant that any form of set planning or other preparation was entirely out of the question, so I was feeling rather uneasy about the whole thing when I arrived in Gent Friday afternoon.

Luckily I have some fantastic friends in the guys behind Suntrip Records. This time it was Joske (DJ Anoebis) who welcomed me to his home and let me spend most of the Saturday hunched over his DJ gear trying out track combinations. In retrospect my performance was far from ideal – some of the track selection could have been optimised – but without Joske’s hospitality it would have been much worse.

Before this party I had actually decided that if it didn’t go well, it would be my very last gig and that I’d sell my DJ equipment. I’ve grown tired of playing for 15 sluggishly tired, damp and drugged up people with no particular interest in the music – it’s just not worth my time and effort if noone cares. With the poor preparation and my exhaustion from the torturous work week preceding the party, my hopes were dim.

The acoustics of the venue were a bit troublesome and muddled anything with a lot of spectral saturation, and quite a bit of bass leaked through from the acidcore floor. It was also lit with nothing but blacklights, which made me worried that the rather sunny and sparkling music I had selected would clash with the setting. As you can probably tell, I had reason to feel a bit pessimistic about the whole ordeal. However, this is how it went:

This is from the last track, when the organizers had turned on the ceiling lights to signal the end of the party. It was a total riot on the dancefloor, boiling with explosive energy. And this is at 9 in the morning, these people have been going all night! I don’t know how many there were, but out of the 900+ paying visitors a good two thirds were probably left.

Here’s a very brief and low quality video of what it looks like from the stage, shot with my crappy old phone (you don’t need sound for this one – I even manage to put my thumb over the microphone half-way through):

Suffice to say, I will not be selling my gear any time soon. Huge thanks to Ilsan and Arne of Psylence for booking me, Joske and Fabien for Suntrip hospitality and last but certainly not least – the Belgian party crowd, you’re fantastic!